Islanders rebound from clunker to thoroughly defeat Capitals

Well, that was better. Much, much better.

The Islanders bounced back from their worst loss — and effort — of the season with a high-energy 5-1 win over the Capitals on Friday night at UBS Arena in their last home game of 2023.

The visiting Penguins humiliated the Islanders, 7-0, on Wednesday.

“It’s huge,” said Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who had two goals and two assists in his third career four-point outing and went 11-for-14 on faceoffs. “We weren’t happy with our effort. We owned it and we came back today all business and we did the job.”

“Amazing,” said linemate Julien Gauthier, who had a career-high three points with goals 18 seconds apart in the third period after being a healthy scratch in favor of Oliver Wahlstrom against the Penguins. “We had to, as a group, answer for what happened last game. You can’t let that linger for a long time. We had a great response. We were really good from the start to the end.”

Ilya Sorokin, torched for six goals on 25 shots in two periods Wednesday, stopped 26 shots against Washington. Nicolas Aube-Kubel spoiled his shutout bid at 19:42 of the third period.

“I thought we had a good character response all night long,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We were better defensively. More committed in terms of finishing and closing.

“This morning was just more sort of businesslike. In my mind, I knew we would come out and play a good game.”

Darcy Kuemper, in an unexpected relief outing, stopped 24 shots for the Capitals (17-11-5)

, who lost defenseman Martin Fehervary and goalie Charlie Lindgren to upper-body injuries at 6:46 of the first period.

Every Islander was fully engaged, from Mathew Barzal’s backchecking to Bo Horvat’s penalty-killing to defenseman Mike Reilly sprawling to stop a rush to Matt Martin’s energy in his first game since Nov. 15.

The Islanders were without fourth-line center Casey Cizikas (illness). That forced Cal Clutterbuck to move to the middle from right wing and allowed Martin, their longtime linemate, to dress after missing 19 games through two stints on injured reserve for an upper-body injury.

“Those types of losses do happen and they never feel good,” Martin said. “And this was as good of a response and a game that I’ve seen. We played a solid 60 minutes against a divisional opponent in a big game.”

After allowing six goals in the second period against Pittsburgh, the Isles had the only two of Friday’s middle frame.

Pageau opened the scoring with a one-timer from the left circle at 4:51 after Gauthier led a rush up the right wall.

Defenseman Noah Dobson, taking a drop pass from Barzal off a rush, blasted it past Kuemper from the slot for a 2-0 lead at 6:01. After Gauthier’s goals made it 4-0 at 10:28 of the third period, Pageau pushed it to 5-0 at 14:26.

“It felt like we had it tonight,” Anders Lee said. “You saw the response . . . Guys were working. Guys were smart. We didn’t have as many turnovers.”

Notes & quotes: Goalie Semyon Varlamov (maintenance) was unavailable and Ken Appleby dressed as Sorokin’s backup. Lambert listed Varlamov as day-to-day and said it is unclear whether he will accompany the team on a four-game road trip that begins on Sunday in Pittsburgh . . . Horvat had two assists . . . Lambert said it is possible that defenseman Scott Mayfield (injured reserve/upper body), who missed his eighth game, will travel with the team.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.